On August 6th (KST), DAMWON Gaming defeated Gen.G in the 2020 League of Legends Champions Korea Summer Split and went to the top of the standings. It was a 6-game winning streak for them as they succeeded to defeat both teams that won against DAMWON Gaming in the first round. After the match, Cho “BeryL” Geon-hee joined the press room to talk about their win.

How do you feel about today’s win?

It was an important match. We had a hard fight so I’m very tired, but I feel good that we won.

You’re at the top of the standings with today’s win. Did you predict that you’d come to the top before the season started?

We didn’t. Not that high. Since our form wasn’t that good during the spring and the top four teams were really good. The other three teams’ performances were really good so we didn’t think we’d fare this well.

Pantheon is like your signature pick and you played Poppy and Sejuani today. Is there a reason that you pick those unconventional picks?

Poppy seemed useful in game 1 since the opponents had a dive comp, but Ruler and Life were really good. We trailed a lot more than our scrims. It seems that they’re really good. As for Sejuani, we took it because it seemed that they’ll take her as the last pick. We thought if they pick Sejuani, we would have a hard time, so we stole it, but it didn’t seem right for the jungle and I just locked in Karthus on my own for our last pick. I felt that if we play anything normal, we wouldn’t be able to win.

Didn’t other players and the coaching staff say anything to you?

They were all frustrated and said a word or two, but it was already locked in. Before that, everyone was all over the place. I did suggest Karthus about three seconds before the draft was over, but since no one really responded, I just picked him.

Gen.G was like your natural enemy. You would have prepared a lot.

As you know, our bot lane is rather weak. Gen.G’s bot duo played tight without mistakes. I thought we wouldn’t be able to win, but we won today because the top side did well. In my opinion, we lost in bot lane again today.

Ghost seemed extremely angry after game 1.

He wasn’t angry. During scrims, the Ashe vs Kalista matchup wasn’t this bad. Ruler was really good so Ghost said that it’s too hard. I guess his mentality was smashed and his soul kind of left his body. It was the first time I saw that expression on his face.

Is it because of the meta that you pick unconventional picks?

I used to play Poppy support from before. I also played Sejuani a couple of times last summer. Whatever champion there is, I try them out more than five times. I know most of the skill mechanisms. Usually, the picks that appear as a support don’t have that high of a mechanical ceiling. If they have a decent CC and are tanky, they’re alright.

It still seems like you lead the unconventional support picks. Would other players be able to play them too?

It’s not always like that, but champions like Pantheon might be different. When I play Pantheon, I think that I’m the strongest in the galaxy. I play him thinking that I’ll take someone with me when I go down. I’m the most confident when I play Pantheon. Picks like Sejuani isn’t that difficult; other players can play her well too.

You still haven’t lost in the second round, but the set win streak was stopped. Isn’t that regretful?

If we were to win all the remaining games 2-0, we would have set a new record with +30, but if we win all games from now on, we can still tie the 2015 SK Telecom T1's +29. That would be satisfying enough.

Would you say DAMWON Gaming is now the 1-top of the LCK now that you’re at the top of the standings?

We have a match against T1, one of the top four teams, in the last week. Their form is getting better so we should still be on our toes.

You have four matches left. How are the chances that you’ll go straight to the finals?

If we’re not careless in the remaining matches, I believe it would be at least 70%.

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